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Essay.    Paper 25 

THE   MONARCH   OF   DREAMS 5O 


LEE  AND   SHEPARD,   Boston. 


THE 


MONARCH  OF  DREAMS 


BY 
THOMAS   WENTWORTH    HIGGINSON 


BOSTON 
LEE   AND    SHEPARD,  PUBLISHERS 

1887 


COPYRIGHT,  1886, 
BY   LEE  AND  SHEPARD. 


All  rights  reserved. 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 


M746994 


i/acrcreti/. 

./ESCHYLUS:  Agamemnon,  391, 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 


HE  who  forsakes  the  railways  and  goes 
wandering  through  the  hill-country  of  New 
England,  must  adopt  one  rule  as  invariable. 
When  he  comes  to  a  fork  in  the  road,  and  is 
assured  that  both  ways  lead  to  the  desired 
point,  he  must  simply  ask  which  road  is  the 
best ;  and,  on  its  being  pointed  out,  must  at 
once  take  the  other.  Nothing  can  be  easier 
than  the  explanation  of  this  method.  The 
passers-by  will  always  recommend  the  new 
road,  which  keeps  to  the  valley  and  avoids 
the  hills ;  but  the  old  road,  deserted  by  the 

7 


8  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

general  public,  ascends  the  steeper  grades, 
and  has  a  monopoly  of  the  wider  views. 

Turning  to  the  old  road,  you  soon  feel 
that  both  houses  and  men  are,  in  a  man 
ner,  stranded.  They  see  very  little  of  the 
world,  and  are  under  no  stimulus  to  keep 
themselves  in  repair.  You  are  wholly  be 
yond  the  dreary  sway  of  French  roofs  ;  and 
the  caricatures  of  good  Queen  Anne's  day 
are  far  from  you.  If  any  farmhouse  on  the 
hill-road  was  really  built  within  the  reign  of 
that  much-abused  potentate,  it  is  probably  a 
solid,  square  mansion  of  brick,  three  stories 
high,  blackened  with  time,  and  frowning 
rather  gloomily  from  some  hilltop,  —  as  es 
sentially  a  part  of  the  past  as  an  Irish  round- 
tower  or  a  Scotch  border-fortress.  A  branch 
ing  elm-tree  or  two  may  droop  above  it.  It 
is  partly  screened  from  the  road  by  a  lilac- 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  9 

hedge,  and  by  what  seems  an  unnecessarily 
large  wood-pile.  A  low  stone  wall  surrounds 
the  ample  barns  and  sheds,  made  of  unpainted 
wood,  and  now  gray  with  age  ;  and  near  these 
is  a  neglected  garden,  where  phlox  and  pinks 
and  tiger-lilies  are  intersected  with  irregular 
hedges  of  tree-box.  The  house  looks  upon 
gorgeous  sunsets  and  distant  mountain  ranges, 
and  lakes  surrounded  by  pine  and  chestnut 
woods.  Against  a  lurid  sky,  or  in  a  brood 
ing  fog,  it  is  as  impressive  in  the  landscape 
as  a  feudal  castle ;  and  like  that,  it  is  almost 
deserted :  human  life  has  slipped  away  from 
it  into  the  manufacturing  village,  swarming 
with  French  Canadians,  in  the  valley  below. 

It  was  t9  such  a  house  that  Francis  Ay- 
rault  had  finally  taken  up  his  abode,  leaving 
behind  him  the  old  family  homestead  in  a 
Rhode-Island  seaside  town.  A  series  of 


IO      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

domestic  cares  and  watchings  had  almost 
broken  him  down  :  nothing  debilitates  a  man 
of  strong  nature  like  the  too  prolonged  and 
^exclusive  exercise  of  the  habit  of  sympathy. 
At  last,  when  the  very  spot,  where  he  was 
born  had  been  chosen  as  a  site  for  a  new 
railway-station,  there  seemed  nothing  more 
to  retain  him.  He  needed  utter  rest  and 
change ;  and  there  was  no  one  left  on  earth 
whom  he  profoundly  loved,  except  a  little 
sunbeam  of  a  sister,  the  child  of  his  father's 
second  marriage.  This  little  five-year-old 
girl,  of  whom  he  was  sole  guardian,  had  been 
christened  by  the  quaint  name  of  Hart,  after 
an  ancestor,  Hart  Ayrault,  whose  moss-cov 
ered  tombstone  the  child  had  often  explored 
with  her  little  fingers,  to  trace  the  vanishing 
letters  of  her  own  name. 

The  two  had  arrived  one  morning  from 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  1 1 

the  nearest  railway  station  to  take  possession 
of  the  old  brick  farmhouse.  Ayrault  had 
spent  the  day  in  unpacking  and  in  consulta 
tions  with  Cyrus  Gerry,  —  the  farmer  from 
whom  he  had  bought  the  place,  and  who  was 
still  to  conduct  all  out-door  operations.  The 
child,  for  her  part,  had  compelled  her  old 
nurse  to  follow  her  through  every  corner  of 
the  buildings.  They  were  at  last  seated  at 
an  early  supper,  during  which  little  Hart  was 
too  much  absorbed  in  the  novelty  of  wild  red 
raspberries  to  notice,  even  in  the  most  casual 
way,  her  brother's  worn  and  exhausted  look. 

"  Brother  Frank,"  she  incidentally  re 
marked,  as  she  began  upon  her  second  sau- 
cerful  of  berries,  "  I  love  you  !  " 

"Thank  you,  darling/'  was  his  mechanical 
reply  to  the  customary  ebullition.  She  was 
silent  for  a  time,  absorbed  in  her  pleasing 


12      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

pursuit,  and  then  continued  more  specifically, 
"  Brother  Frank,  you  are  the  kindest  person 
in  the  whole  world  !  I  am  so  glad  we  came 
here !  May  we  stay  here  all  winter  ?  It 
must  be  lovely  in  the  winter;  and  in  the  barn 
there  is  a  little  sled  with  only  one  runner 
gone.  Brother  Frank,  I  love  you  so  much,  I 
don't  know  what  I  shall  do !  I  love  you  a 
thousand  pounds,  and  fifteen,  and  eleven  and 
a  half,  and  more  than  tongue  can  tell  besides  ! 
And  there  are  three  gray  kittens,  —  only  one 
of  them  is  almost  all  white,  —  and  Susan  says 
I  may  bring  them  for  you  to  see  in  the  morn 
ing/'  • 

Half  an  hour  later,  the  brilliant  eyes  were 
closed  in  slumber ;  the  vigorous  limbs  lay 
in  perfect  repose ;  and  the  child  slept  that 
night  in  the  little  room  inside  her  brother's, 
on  the  same  bed  that  she  had  occupied  ever 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  13 

since  she  had  been  left  motherless.  But  her 
brother  lay  awake,  absorbed  in  a  project  too 
fantastic  to  be  talked  about,  yet  which  had 
really  done  more  than  any  thing  else  to 
bring  him  to  that  lonely  house. 

There  has  belonged  to  Rhode-Islanders, 
ever  since  the  days  of  Roger  Williams,  a 
certain  taste  for  the  ideal  side  of  existence. 
It  is  the  only  State  in  the  American  Upion 
where  chief  justices  habitually  write  poetry, 
and  prosperous  manufacturers  print  essays 
on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will.  Perhaps, 
moreover,  Francis  Ayrault  held  something 
of  these  tendencies  from  a  Huguenot  ances 
try,  crossed  with  a  strain  of  Quaker  blood. 
At  any  rate  it  was  there,  and  asserted  itself 
at  this  crisis  of  his  life.  Being  in  a  manner 
detached  from  almost  all  ties,  he  resolved  to 
use  his  opportunity  in  a  direction  yet  almost 


14  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

unexplored  by  man.  His  earthly  joys  being 
prostrate,  he  had  resolved  to  make  a  mighty 
effort  at  self-concentration,  and  to  render 
himself  what  no  human  being  had  ever  yet 
been, — the  ruler  of  his  own  dreams. 

Coming  from  a  race  of  day-dreamers, 
Ayrault  had  inherited  an  unusual  faculty  of 
dreaming  also  by  night ;  and,  like  all  persons 
having  an  especial  gift,  he  perhaps  over 
estimated  its  importance.  He  easily  con 
vinced  himself  that  no  exertion  of  the  intel 
lect  during  wakeful  hours,  can  for  an  instant 
be  compared  with  that  we  employ  in  dreams. 
The  finest  brain-structures  of  Shakspeare  or 
Dante,  he  reasoned,  are  yet  but  such  stuff  as 
dreams  are  made  of ;  and  the  stupidest  rus 
tic,  the  most  untrained  mind,  will  sometimes 
have,  could  they  be  but  written  out,  visions 
that  surpass  those  of  these  masters.  From 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.      15 

the  dog  that  hunts  in  dreams,  up  to  Coleridge 
dreaming  "  Kubla  Khan  "  and  interrupted  by 
the  man  on  business  from  Porlock,  every 
sentient,  or  even  half-sentient,  being  reaches 
its  height  of  imaginative  action  in  dreams. 

InL  these alojne,    Ayrault   reasoned^  do   we 

grasp  something  beyond  ourselves:  every 
other  function  is  self-limited,  but  who  can 
set  a  limit  to  his  visions?  Of  all  forms  of 
the  Inner  Light,  they  afford  the  very  inmost ; 
in  these  is  fulfilled  the  early  maxim  of  Friends, 
—  that  a  man  never  rises  so  high  as  when  he 
knows  not  where  he  is  going.  On  awaking, 
indeed,  we  cannot  even  tell  where  we  have 
just  been.  Probably  the  very  utmost  wealth 
of  our  remembered  dreams  is  but  a  shred 
and  fragment  of  those  whose  memory  we 
cannot  grasp. 

But    Ayrault    had    been    vexed,    like    all 


1 6  THE   MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

others,  by  the  utter  incongruity  of  succes 
sive  dreams.  This  sublime  navigation  still 
waited,  like  that  of  balloon  voyages,  for  a  rud 
der.  Dreams,  he  reasoned,  plainly  try  to  con 
nect  themselves.  We  all  have  the  frequent 
experience  of  half-recognizing  new  situations 
or  even  whole  trains  of  ideas.  We  have  seen 
this  view  before ;  reached  this  point ;  struck 
in  some  way  the  exquisite  chord  of  memory. 
When  half-aroused,  or  sometimes  even  long 
after  clear  consciousness,  we  seem  to  draw  a 
half-drowned  image  of  association  from  the 
deep  waters  of  the  mind  ;  then  another,  then 
another,  until  dreaming  seems  inseparably 
entangled  with  waking.  Again,  over  nightly 
dreams  we  have  at  least  a  certain  amount  of 
negative  control,  sufficient  to  bring  them  to 
an  end.  Ayrault  had  long  since  discovered 
and  proved  to  himself  the  fact,  insisted  upon 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     IJ 

by  Currie  and  Macnish,  that  a  nightmare  can 
be  banished  by  compelling  one's  self  to 
remember  that  it  is  unreal.  Again  and  again, 
during  sleep,  had  he  cast  himself  from  towers, 
dropped  from  balloons,  fallen  into  the  sea,  — 
and  all  unscathed.  This  way  of  ending  an 
unpleasant  dream  was  but  a  negative  power 
indeed ;  but  it  was  a  substantial  one :  it 
implied  the  existence  of  some  completer 
authority.  If  we  can  stop  motion,  we  can 
surely  originate  it.  He  had  already  searched 
the  books,  therefore,  for  recorded  instances 
of  more  positive  control. 

There  was  opium  of  course ;  but  he  was 
one  of  those  on  whom  opium  has  little  ex 
citing  influence,  and  so  far  as  it  had  any, 
it  only  made  his  visions  more  incoherent. 
Haschish  was  in  this  respect  still  worse.  It 
was  not  to  be  thought  of,  that  one  should 


1 8  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

resort,  for  the  sake  of  dreams,  to  raw  meat, 
like  Dryden  and  Fuseli;  or  to  other  indigest 
ible  food,  like  Mrs.  Radcliffe.  The  experi 
ments  of  Giron  de  Buzareingues  promised  a 
little  more ;  for  he  actually  obtained  recurrent 
dreams.  He  used  to  sleep  with  his  knees  un 
covered  on  cool  nights,  and  fancied  during 
his  sleep  that  he  was  riding  in  a  stage-coach, 
where  the  lower  extremities  are  apt  to  grow 
cold.  Again,  by  wearing  a  nightcap  over 
the  front  part  of  his  head  only,  he  seemed, 
when  asleep,  to  be  uncovering  before  a  reli 
gious  procession,  and  feeling  chilly  in  the  nape 
of  the  neck ;  this  same  result  being  obtained 
on  several  different  occasions.  It  was  re 
corded  of  some  one  else,  that,  by  letting  his 
feet  hang  over  the  bedside,  he  repeatedly 
imagined  himself  tottering  on  the  brink  of  a 
precipice.  Even  these  crude  and  superficial 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  1 9 

experiments  had  a  value,  Ayrault  thought. 
If  coarse  physical  processes  could  affect  the 
mind's  action,  could  not  the  will  by  some 
more  powerful  levers  control  the  silent  rev 
eries  of  the  night  ? 

He  derived  some  encouragement,  too, 
from  such  instances  as  that  recorded  of 
Alderman  Clay  of  Newark,  England,  during 
the  siege  of  that  town  by  Cromwell.  He 
dreamed  on  three  successive  nights  that  his 
house  had  taken  fire.  Because  of  this  sup 
posed  warning,  he  removed  his  family  from 
the  dwelling  ;  and,  when  it  was  afterwards 
really  burned  by  Cromwell's  troops,  left  a 
bequest  of  a  hundred  pounds  to  supply 
penny  loaves  to  the  town  poor,  in  acknowl- 
ment  of  his  marvellous  escape.  It  is  true 
that  the  three  dreams  were  apparently  mere 
repetitions  of  one  another,  and  in  no  way 


20  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

continuous ;  it  is  true  that  they  were  not 
the  result  of  any  conscious  will.  So  much 
the  better :  they  were  produced  by  the  con 
tinuous  working  of  some  powerful  mental 
influence ;  and  this  again  was  the  result  of 
external  conditions.  The  experiment  could 
not  be  reproduced.  One  could  not  be  always 
dreaming  under  pressure  of  a  cannonade 
by  Cromwell,  any  more  than  Charles  Lamb's 
Chinese  people  could  be  always  burning 
down  their  houses  in  order  to  taste  the 
flavor  of  roast-pig.  But  the  point  was,  that 
if  dreams  could  be  made  to  recur  by 
accidental  circumstances,  the  same  thing 
might  perhaps  be  effected  by  conscious 
thought. 

Now  that  he  was  in  a  position  for  free 
experiment,  he  hoped  to  accomplish  some 
thing  more  substantial  than  any  casual  or 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     21 

vague  results ;  and  he  therefore  so  arranged 
his  methods  as  to  avoid  interruption.  In 
stead  of  exciting  himself  by  day,  he  adopted 
a  course  of  strict  moderation  ;  took  his  food 
regularly  with  the  little  girl,  amused  by  her 
prattle ;  began  systematic  exercise  on  horse 
back  and  on  foot ;  avoided  society  and  the 
newspapers ;  and  went  to  bed  at  an  early 
hour,  locking  himself  into  a  wing  of  the 
large  farmhouse,  the  little  Hart  sleeping 
in  a  room  within  his.  Once  retired,  he  did 
not  permit  himself  to  be  called  on  any  pre 
text.  Hart  always  slept  profoundly ;  and 
with  her  first  call  of  waking  in  the  morning, 
he  rang  the  bell  for  old  Susan,  who  took 
the  child  away.  It  would  have  left  him 
more  free,  of  course,  to  intrust  her  alto 
gether  to  the  nurse's  charge,  but  to  this  he 
could  not  bring  himself.  She  was  his  one 


22      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

sacred  trust,  and  not  even  his  beloved  pro 
jects  could  wholly  displace  her. 

The  thought  had  occurred  to  him,  long 
since,  at  what  point  to  apply  his  efforts  for 
the  control  of  his  dreams.  He  had  been 
quite  fascinated,  some  time  before,  by  a 
large  photograph  in  a  shop  window,  of  the 
well-known  fortress  known  as  Mont  Saint 
Michel,  in  Normandy.  Its  steepness,  its 
airy  height,  its  winding  and  returning 
stairways,  its  overhanging  towers  and 
machicolations,  had  struck  him  as  appeal 
ing  powerfully  to  that  sense  of  the  vertical, 
which  is,  for  some  reason  or  other,  so 
peculiarly  strong  in  dreams.  We  are  rarely 
haunted  by  visions  of  plains  ;  often  of  moun 
tains.  The  sensation  of  uplifting  or  down- 
looking  is  one  of  our  commonest  nightly 
experiences.  It  seemed  to  Ayrault  that  by 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     2$ 

going  to  sleep  with  the  vivid  mental  image 
in  his  brain  of  a  sharp  and  superb  altitude 
like  that  of  Mont  Saint  Michel,  he  could 
avail  himself  of  this  magic,  whatever  it  was, 
that  lay  in  the  vertical  line.  Casting  him 
self  off  into  the  vast  sphere  of  dreams,  with 
the  thread  of  his  fancy  attached  to  this  fine 
image,  he  might  risk  what  would  next 
come  to  him  ;  as  a  spider  anchors  his  web 
and  then  floats  away  on  it.  In  the  silence 
of  the  first  night  at  the  farmhouse,  —  a  still 
ness  broken  only  by  the  answering  cadence 
of  two  whippoorwills  in  the  neighboring 
pine-wood,  —  Ayrault  pondered  long  over 
the  beautiful  details  of  the  photograph,  and 
then  went  to  sleep. 

That  night  he  was  held,  with  the  greatest 
vividness  and  mastery,  in  the  grasp  of  a 
dream  such  as  he  had  never  before  expe- 


24  THE   MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

rienced.  He  found  himself  on  the  side  of 
a  green  hill,  so  precipitous  that  he  could 
only  keep  his  position  by  lying  at  full 
length,  clinging  to  the  short  soft  grass,  and 
imbedding  his  feet  in  the  turf.  There  were 
clouds  about  him  :  he  could  see  but  a  short 
distance  in  any  direction,  nor  was  any  sign 
of  a  human  being  within  sight.  He  was 
absolutely  alone  upon  the  dizzy  slope,  where 
he  hardly  dared  to  look  up  or  down,  and 
where  it  took  all  his  concentration  of  effort 
to  keep  a  position  at  all.  Yet  there  was  a 
kind  of  friendliness  in  the  warm  earth ;  a 
comfort  and  fragrance  in  the  crushed  herb 
age.  The  vision  seemed  to  continue  indefi 
nitely  ;  but  at  last  he  waked  and  it  was 
clear  day.  He  rose  with  a  bewildered  feel 
ing,  and  went  to  little  Hart's  room.  The 
child  lay  asleep,  her  round  face  tangled  in 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     2$ 

her  brown  curls,  and  one  plump,  tanned  arm 
stretched  over  her  eyes.  She  waked  at  his 
step,  and  broke  out  into  her  customary  sweet 
asseveration,  "  Brother  Frank,  I  love  you  !  " 

Dismissing  the  child,  he  pondered  on  his 
first  experiment.  It  had  succeeded,  surely, 
in  so  far  as  he  had  given  something  like  a 
direction  to  his  nightly  thought.  He  could 
not  doubt  that  it  was  the  picture  of  Mont 
Saint  Michel  which  had  transported  him  to 
the  steep  hillside.  That  day  he  spent  in 
the  most  restless  anxiety  to  see  if  the  dream 
would  come  again.  Writing  down  all  that 
he  could  remember  of  the  previous  night's 
vision,  he  studied  again  the  photograph 
that  had  so  touched  his  fancy,  and  then 
he  closed  his  eyes.  Again  he  found  him 
self —  at  some  time  between  night  and 
morning  —  on  the  high  hillside,  with  the 


26     THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

clouds  around  him.  But  this  time  the 
vapors  lifted,  and  he  could  see  that  the 
hill  stretched  for  an  immeasurable  distance 
on  each  side,  always  at  the  same  steep 
slope.  Everywhere  it  was  covered  with 
human  beings, — men,  women,  and  children, 
—  all  trying  to  pursue  various  semblances 
of  occupation  ;  but  all  clinging  to  the  short 
grass.  Sometimes,  he  thought — but  this 
was  not  positive  —  that  he  saw  one  of  them 
lose  his  hold  and  glide  downwards.  For 
this  he  cared  strangely  little ;  but  he  waked 
feverish,  excited,  trembling.  At  last  his 
effort  had  succeeded  :  he  had,  by  an  effort 
of  will,  formed  a  connection  between  two 
dreams. 

He  came  down  to  breakfast  exhilarated 
and  eager.  What  triumph  of  mind,  what 
ranges  of  imagination  equalled  those  now 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     2/ 

opening  before  him  !  As  an  outlet  for  his 
delight,  he  gave  up  the  day  to  little  Hart, 
always  ready  to  monopolize.  With  her  he 
visited  the  cows  in  the  barn,  the  heifers  in 
the  pasture ;  heard  their  names,  their  traits, 
and  —  with  much  vagueness  of  arithmetic 
—  their  ages.  She  explained  to  him  that 
Brindle  was  cross,  and  Mabel  roguish  ;  and 
that  she  had  put  her  arm  around  little  Pet's 
neck.  Animals  are  to  children  something 
almost  as  near  as  human  beings,  because 
they  have  those  attributes  of  humanity 
which  children  chiefly  prize,  —  instinct  and 
affection.  Then  Hart  had  the  horses  to 
exhibit,  the  pigs,  a  few  sheep,  and  a  whole 
poultry-yard  of  chickens.  She  was  already 
initiated  into  the  art  and  mystery  of  looking 
tor  hen's  eggs,  and  indeed  already  trotted 
about  after  Cyrus  Gerry,  a  little  acolyte  at 


28      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

the  altar  of  farming.  "  She  likes  to  play  at 
it,"  said  Cyrus,  "  same  as  my  boys  do :  but 
just  call  it  work,  and  —  there  !  I  don't  blame 
'em.  The  fact  is,"  he  added  apologetically, 
"  neither  me  nor  my  boys  like  to  be  kept 
always  at  the  same  dull  roundelay  o'chop- 
pin'  wood  and  doin'  chores." 

It  was  quite  true  that  Cyrus  Gerry  and  his 
boys,  like  many  a  New-England  farm  house 
hold,  had  certain  tastes  and  aptitudes  that 
sadly  interfered  with  their  out-door  work. 
One  son  played  the  organ  in  the  neighboring 
city,  another  was  teaching  himself  the  violin, 
and  the  third  filled  the  barn  with  half-finished 
models  of  machinery.  Cyrus  himself  read 
over  and  over  again,  in  the  winter  evenings, 
his  one  favorite  book, — a  translation  of 
Lamartine's  "  History  of  the  Girondists,"  — 
pronounced  habitually  Guyrondists ;  and  he 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     29 

found  in  its  pages  a  pithy  illustration  for 
every  event  that  could  befall  his  chosen  hero, 
Humanity.  Most  of  his  warnings  were  taken 
from  the  career  of  Robespierre,  and  his  high 
and  heroic  examples  from  Vergniaud ;  while 
these  characters  lost  nothing  in  vigor  by 
being  habitually  quoted  as  "  Robyspierry," 
and  "  Virginnyord." 

In  the  service  of  his  little  sister,  Ayrault 
explored  that  day  many  an  old  barn  and  shed ; 
while  she  took  thrilling  leaps  from  the  hay 
mow  or  sat  with  the  three  gray  kittens  in 
her  lap.  Together  they  decked  the  parlors 
with  gay  masses  of  mountain  laurel,  or  with 
the  first-found  red  lilies,  or  with  white  water- 
lilies  from  the  pond.  To  the  child,  life  was 
full  of  incident  on  that  lonely  farm.  One 
day  it  was  a  young  woodchuck  caught  in  a 
trap,  and  destined  to  be  petted  ;  another  day, 


30  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

the  fearful  assassination  of  a  whole  brood  of 
young  chickens  by  a  culprit  owl ;  the  next,  a 
startling  downfall  of  a  whole  nest  of  swal 
lows  in  the  chimney.  On  this  particular  day 
she  chattered  steadily,  and  Ayrault  enjoyed 
it.  But  that  night  he  lost  utterly  the  new 
found  control  of  his  dream,  and  waked  in 
irritation  with  himself  and  the  world. 

He  spent  the  next  day  alone.  It  cost 
Hart  a  few  tears  to  lose  her  new-found  play 
mate,  but  a  tame  pigeon  consoled  her.  That 
night  Ayrault  pondered  long  over  his  memo 
randa  of  previous  dreaming,  and  over  the 
photograph  with  which  he  had  begun  the 
spell,  and  was  rewarded  by  a  renewal  of  his 
visions ;  but  this  time  wavering  and  uncertain. 
Sometimes  he  was  again  on  the  bare  hill 
side,  clutching  at  the  soft  grass  ;  then  the 
scene  shifted  to  some  castle,  whose  high 


THE  MONARCH  OP  DREAMS.  3  I 

battlements  he  was  climbing;  then  he  found 
himself  among  the  Alps,  treading  some  nar 
row  path  between  rock  and  glacier,  with  the 
tinkling  herd  of  young  goats  crowding  round 
him  for  comradeship  and  impeding  his  prog 
ress  ;  again,  he  was  following  the  steep 
course  of  some  dried  brook  among  the  Scot 
tish  Highlands,  or  pausing  to  count  the  de 
serted  hearthstones  of  a  vanished  people. 
Always  at  short  intervals  he  reverted  to  the 
grassy  hill ;  it  seemed  the  foundation  of  his 
visions,  the  rest  were  like  dreams  within 
dreams.  At  last  a  heavier  sleep  came  on, 
featureless  and  purposeless,  till  he  waked 
unrefreshed. 

On  the  following  night  he  grasped  his 
dream  once  more.  Again  he  found  himself 
on  the  precipitous  slope,  this  time  looking 
off  through  clear  air  upon  that  line  of  de- 


32      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

tached  mountain  peaks,  Wachusett,  Monad- 
nock,  Moosilauke,  which  make  the  southern 
outposts  of  New -England  hills.  In  the 
valley  lay  pellucid  lakes,  set  in  summer 
beauty,  —  while  he  clung  to  his  perilous  hold. 
Presently  there  came  a  change ;  the  mountain 
sank  away  softly  beneath  him,  and  the  grassy 
slope  remained  a  plain.  The  men  and  wo 
men,  his  former  companions,  had  risen  from 
their  reclining  postures  and  were  variously 
busy ;  some  of  them  even  looked  at  him,  but 
there  was  nothing  said.  Great  spaces  of 
time  appeared  to  pass  :  suns  rose  and  set. 
Sometimes  one  of  the  crowd  would  throw 
down  his  implements  of  labor,  turn  his  face 
to  the  westward,  walk  swiftly  away,  and  dis 
appear.  Yet  some  one  else  would  take  his 
place,  so  that  the  throng  never  perceptibly 
diminished.  Ayrault  began  to  feel  rather 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  33. 

unimportant  in   all   this  gathering,  and  the 
sensation  was  not  agreeable. 

On  the  succeeding  night  the  hillside  van 
ished,  never  to  recur ;  but  the  vast  plain  re 
mained,  and  the  people.  Over  the  wide 
landscape  the  sunbeams  shed  passing  smiles 
of  light,  now  here,  now  there.  Where  these 
shone  for  a  moment,  faces  looked  joyous,  and 
Ayrault  found,  with  surprise,  that  he  could 
control  the  distribution  of  light  and  shade. 
This  pleased  him ;  it  lifted  him  into  conscious 
importance.  There  was,  however,  a  singular 
want  of  all  human  relation  in  the  tie  between 
himself  and  all  these  people.  He  felt  as  if  he 
had  called  them  into  being,  which  indeed  he 
had  ;  and  could  annihilate  them  at  pleasure, 
which  perhaps  could  not  be  so  easily  done. 
Meanwhile,  there  was  a  certain  hardness  in 
his  state  of  mind  toward  them ;  indeed,  why 


34      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

should  a  dreamer  feel  patience  or  charity  or 
mercy  toward  those  who  exist  but  in  his 
mind  ?  Ayrault  at  any  rate  felt  none ;  the 
sole  thing  which  disturbed  him  was  that  they 
sometimes  grew  a  little  dim,  as  if  they  might 
vanish  and  leave  him  unaccompanied.  When 
this  happened,  he  drew  with  conscious  voli 
tion  a  gleam  of  light  over  them,  and  thereby 
refreshed  their  life.  They  enhanced  his 
weight  in  the  universe  :  he  would  no  more 
have  parted  with  them  than  a  Highland  chief 
with  his  clansmen. 

For  several  nights  after  this  he  did  not 
dream.  Little  Hart  became  ill  and  his  mind 
was  pre-occupied.  He  had  to  send  for  physi 
cians,  to  give  medicine,  to  be  up  with  the 
child  at  night.  The  interruption  vexed  him  ; 
and  he  was  also  pained  to  find  that  there 
seemed  to  be  a  slight  barrier  between  him- 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.      35 

self  and  her.  Yet  he  was  rigorously  faithful 
to  his  duties  as  nurse ;  he  even  liked  to  hold 
her  hand,  to  sooth  her  pain,  to  watch  her 
sweet,  patient  face.  Like  Coleridge  in  mis 
anthropic  mood,  he  saw,  not  felt,  how  beauti 
ful  she  was.  Then,  with  the  rapidity  of 
childish  convalescence,  she  grew  well  again ; 
and  he  found  with  joy  that  he  could  resume 
the  thread  of  his  dream-life. 

Again  he  was  on  his  boundless  plain,  with 
his  circle  of  silent  allies  around  him.  Sud 
denly  they  all  vanished,  and  there  rose  before 
him,  as  if  built  out  of  the  atmosphere,  a  vast 
building,  which  he  entered.  It  included  all 
structures  in  one, — legislative  halls  where 
men  were  assembled  by  hundreds,  waiting  for 
him  ;  libraries,  where  all  the  books  belonged 
to  him,  and  whole  alcoves  were  filled  with 
his  own  publications ;  galleries  of  art,  where 


36      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

he  had  painted  many  of  the  pictures,  and 
selected  the  rest.  Doors  and  corridors  led 
to  private  apartments ;  lines  of  obsequious 
servants  stood  for  him  to  pass.  There 
seemed  no  other  proprietor,  no  guests ;  all 
was  for  him;  all  flattered  his  individual  great 
ness.  Suddenly  it  occurred  to  him  that  he 
was  painfully  alone.  Then  he  began  to  pass 
eagerly  from  hall  to  hall,  seeking  an  equal 
companion,  but  in  vain.  Wherever  he  went, 
there  was  a  trace  of  some  one  just  vanished, 
-a  book  laid  down,  a  curtain  still  waving. 
Once  he  fairly  came,  he  thought,  upon  the 
object  of  his  pursuit;  all  retreat  was  cut  off, 
and  he  found  himself  face  to  face  with  a 
mirror  that  reflected  back  to  him  only  his 
own  features.  They  had  never  looked  to  him 
less  attractive. 

Ayrault's    control   of   his   visions    became 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     37 

plainly  more  complete  with  practice,  at  least 
as  to  their  early  stages.  He  could  lie  down 
to  sleep  with  almost  a  perfect  certainty  that 
he  should  begin  where  he  left  off.  Beyond 
this,  alas  !  he  was  powerless.  Night  after 
night  he  was  in  the  same  palace,  but  always 
differently  occupied,  and  always  pursuing, 
with  unabated  energy,  some  new  vocation. 
Sometimes  the  books  were  at  his  command, 
and  he  grappled  with  whole  alcoves;  some 
times  he  ruled  a  listening  senate  in  the 
halls  of  legislation  ;  but  the  peculiarity  was, 
that  there  were  always  menials  and  subordi 
nates  about  him,  never  an  equal.  One 
night,  in  looking  over  these  obsequious 
crowds,  he  made  a  startling  discovery.  They 
either  had  originally,  or  were  acquiring,  a 
strange  resemblance  to  one  another,  and  to 
some  person  whom  he  had  somewhere  seen. 


38      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

All  the  next  day,  in  his  waking  hours, 
this  thought  haunted  him.  The  next  night 
it  flashed  upon  him  that  the  person  whom 
they  all  so  closely  resembled,  with  a  like 
ness  that  now  amounted  to  absolute  identity, 
was  himself. 

From  the  moment  of  this  discovery,  these 
figures  multiplied  ;  they  assumed  a  mock 
ing,  taunting,  defiant  aspect.  The  thought 
was  almost  more  than  he  could  bear,  that 
there  was  around  him  a  whole  world  of 
innumerable  and  uncontrollable  beings, 
every  one  of  whom  was  Francis  Ayrault. 
As  if  this  were  not  sufficient,  they  all  began 
visibly  to  duplicate  themselves  before  his 
eyes.  The  confusion  was  terrific.  Figures 
divided  themselves  into  twins,  laughing  at 
each  other,  jeering,  running  races,  measuring 
heights,  actually  playing  leap-frog  with  one 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.      39 

another.  Worst  of  all,  each  one  of  these 
had  as  much  apparent  claim  to  his  person 
ality  as  he  himself  possessed.  He  could  no 
more  retain  his  individual  hold  upon  his 
consciousness  than  the  infusorial  animalcule 
in  a  drop  of  water  can  know  to  which  of  its 
subdivided  parts  the  original  individuality 
attaches.  It  became  insufferable,  and  by  a 
mighty  effort  he  waked. 

The  next  day,  after  breakfast,  old  Susan 
sought  an  interview  with  Ayrault,  and 
taxed  him  roundly  with  neglect  of  little 
Hart's  condition.  Since  her  former  illness 
she  never  had  been  quite  the  same  ;  she  was 
growing  pale  and  thin.  As  her  brother  no 
longer  played  with  her,  she  only  moped 
about  with  her  kitten,  and  talked  to  herself. 
It  touched  Ayrault's  heart.  He  took  pains 
to  be  with  the  child  that  day,  carried  her 


40  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

for  a  long  drive,  and  went  to  see  her  Guinea- 
hen's  eggs.  That  night  he  kept  her  up 
later  than  usual,  instead  of  hurrying  her 
off  as  had  become  his  wont ;  he  really  found 
himself  shrinking  from  the  dream-world  he 
had  with  such  effort  created.  The  most 
timid  and  shy  person  can  hardly  hesitate 
more  about  venturing  among  a  crowd  of 
strangers  than  Francis  Ayrault  recoiled, 
that  evening,  from  the  thought  of  this  mob 
of  intrusive  persons,  every  one  of  whom  re 
flected  his  own  image.  Gladly  would  he 
have  undone  the  past,  and  swept  them  all 
away  forever.  But  the  shrinking  was  all 
on  one  side  :  the  moment  he  sank  to  sleep, 
they  all  crowded  upon  him,  laughing,  frolick 
ing,  claiming  detestable  intimacy.  No  one 
among  strangers  ever  longed  for  a  friendly 
face,  as  he,  among  these  intolerable  dupli- 


THE   MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  4! 

cates,  longed  for  the  sight  of  a  stranger.  It 
was  worse  yet  when  the  images  grew  smaller 
and  smaller,  until  they  had  shrunk  to  a 
pin's  length.  He  found  himself  trying  with 
all  his  strength  of  will  to  keep  them  at  their 
ampler  size,  with  only  the  effect  that  they 
presently  became  no  larger  than  the  heads 
of  pins.  Yet  his  own  individuality  was  still 
so  distributed  among  them  that  it  could  not 
be  distinguished  from  them  ;  but  he  found 
himself  merged  in  this  crowd  of  little  crea 
tures  an  eighth  of  an  inch  long. 

As  the  days  went  on,  old  Susan  kept 
repeating  her  warnings  about  Hart,  and 
finally  proposed  to  take  her  into  her  own 
room.  "She  does  not  get  sound  sleep,  sir; 
she  complains  of  her  dreams."  —  "Of  what 
dreams?"  said  Ayrault.  "Oh,  about  you, 
sir,"  was  the  reply,  "  she  sees  you  very 


42      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

often,  and  a  great  many  people  who  look 
just  like  you."  Ayrault  sank  back  in  his 
chair  terrified.  Was  it  not  enough  that 
his  own  life  was  hopelessly  haunted  by  a 
turbulent  kingdom  of  his  own  creating? 
but  must  the  malign  influence  extend  also 
to  this  innocent  child  ?  He  watched  Hart 
the  next  morning  at  breakfast  —  she  looked 
pale  and  had  circles  under  her  eyes,  and 
glanced  at  him  timidly  ;  her  eager  endear 
ments  were  all  gone.  A  terrible  tempta 
tion  crossed  Ayrault's  mind  for  a  moment, 
to  employ  this  unspoiled  nature  in  the  peril 
ous  path  of  experiments  on  which  he  had 
entered.  It  vanished  from  him  as  soon  as 
it  had  presented  itself.  He  would  tread  his 
course  alone,  and  send  the  child  away,  rather 
then  risk  any  transmitted  peril  for  her 
young  life.  It  may  be  that  her  dreams  had 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  43 

only  an  accidental  resemblance  to  his  ;  at 
any  rate  she  was  sent  away  on  a  visit,  and 
they  were  soon  forgotten. 

After  the  child  had  gone,  a  feeling  of  deep 
sadness  fell  on  Ayrault.  By  night  he  was 
tangled  in  the  meshes  of  a  dream-life  that 
had  become  a  nightmare ;  by  day  there  was 
now  nothing  to  arouse  him.  The  child's 
insatiable  affection,  her  ardent  ebullitions, 
were  absent.  Cyrus  Gerry's  watchful  and 
speculative  mind  grew  suspicious  and  crit 
ical. 

"  I  shouldn't  wonder,"  he  said  to  his  wife, 
"if  there  was  gettin'  to  be  altogether  too 
much  dreamin'.  There  was  Robyspierry, 
he  was  what  you  might  call  a  dreamer.  But 
that  Virginnyord  he  was  much  nigher  my 
idee  of  an  American  citizen." 

"Got  somethin'  on  his  mind,  think  likely  ?" 


44      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

said  the   slow  and   placid   Mrs.  Gerry,  who 
seldom  had  much  upon  hers. 

"Dunno  as  I  know/*  responded  Cyrus. 
"  But  there,  what  if  he  has  ?  As  I  look  at 
it,  humanity,  a-ploddin'  over  this  planet, 
meets  with  consid'able  many  left-handed 
things.  And  the  best  way  I  know  of  is  to 
summons  up  courage  and  put  right  through 


'em." 


Cyrus's  conceptions  of  humanity  might, 
however,  rise  to  such  touches  of  Wandering- 
Jew  comprehensiveness  as  this,  and  yet  not 
reach  Ayrault,  who  went  his  way  lonelier 
than  ever. 

Having  long  since  fallen  out  of  the  way  of 
action,  or  at  best  grown  satisfied  to  imagine 
enterprises  and  leave  others  to  execute  them, 
he  now,  more  than  ever,  drifted  on  from  day 
to  day.  There  had  been  a  strike  at  the 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     45 

neighboring  manufacturing  village,  and  there 
was  to  be  a  public  meeting,  at  which  he  was 
besought,  as  a  person  not  identified  with 
either  party,  to  be  present,  and  throw  his 
influence  for  peace.  It  touched  him,  and  he 
meant  to  attend.  He  even  thought  of  a  few 
things,  which,  if  said,  might  do  good ;  then 
forgot  the  day  of  the  meeting,  and  rode  ten 
miles  in  another  direction.  Again,  when  at 
the  little  post-office  one  day,  he  was  asked  by 
the  postmaster  to  translate  several  letters  in 
the  French  language,  addressed  to  that  offi 
cial,  and  coming  from  an  unknown  village  in 
Canada.  They  proved  to  contain  anxious 
inquiries  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  a  hand 
some  young  French  girl,  whom  Ayrault 
had  occasionally  met  driving  about  in  what 
seemed  doubtful  company.  His  sympathy 
was  thoroughly  aroused  by  the  anxiety  of 


46  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

the  poor  parents,  from  whom  the  letters 
came.  He  answered  them  himself,  promis 
ing  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  the  girl ;  de 
layed,  day  by  day,  to  fulfill  the  promise ;  and, 
when  he  at  last  looked  for  her,  she  was  not 
to  be  found.  Yet,  while  his  power  of  effi 
cient  action  waned,  his  dream-power  in 
creased.  His  little  people  were  busier  about 
him  than  ever,  though  he  controlled  them 
less  and  less.  He  was  Gulliver  bound  and 
fettered  by  Lilliputians. 

But  a  more  stirring  appeal  was  on  its  way 
to  him.  The  storm  of  the  Civil  War  began 
to  roll  among  the  hills ;  regiments  were  re 
cruited,  camps  were  formed.  The  excitement 
reached  the  benumbed  energies  of  Ayrault. 
Never,  indeed,  had  he  felt  such  a  thrill. 
The  old  Huguenot  pulse  beat  strongly  within 
him.  For  days,  and  even  nights,  these 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     4/ 

thoughts  possessed  his  mind,  and  his  dreams 
utterly  vanished.  Then  there  was  a  lull  in 
the  excitement ;  recruiting  stopped,  and  his 
nightly  habit  of  confusing  visions  set  in 
again  with  dreary  monotony.  Then  there 
was  a  fresh  call  for  troops.  An  old  friend 
of  Ayrault's  came  to  a  neighboring  village, 
and  held  a  noon-day  meeting  in  one  of  the 
churches  to  recruit  a  company.  Ayrault  lis 
tened  with  absorbed  interest  to  the  rousing 
appeal,  and,  when  recruits  were  called  for, 
was  the  first  to  rise.  It  turned  out  that  the 
matter  could  not  be  at  once  consummated, 
as  the  proper  papers  were  not  there.  Other 
young  men  from  the  neighborhood  followed 
Ayrault's  example,  and  it  was  arranged  that 
they  should  all  go  to  the  city  for  regular  en 
listment  the  next  day.  All  that  afternoon 
was  spent  in  preparations,  and  in  talking  with 


48  THE   MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

other  eager  volunteers,  who  seemed  to  look 
to  Ayrault  as  their  head.  It  was  understood, 
they  told  him,  that  he  would  probably  be  an 
officer  in  the  company.  He  felt  himself  a 
changed  being ;  he  was  as  if  floating  in  air. 
and  ready  to  swim  off  to  some  new  planet. 
What  had  he  now  to  do  with  that  pale 
dreamer  who  had  nourished  his  absurd  im 
aginings  until  he  had  barely  escaped  being 
controlled  by  them  ?  When  they  crossed 
his  mind  it  was  only  to  make  him  thank  God 
for  his  escape.  He  flung  wide  the  windows 
of  his  chamber.  He  hated  the  very  sight  of 
the  scene  where  his  proud  vision  had  been 
fulfilled,  and  he  had  been  Monarch  of  Dreams. 
No  matter :  he  was  now  free,  and  the  spell 
was  broken.  Life,  action,  duty,  honor,  a  re 
deemed  nation,  lay  before  him ;  all  entangle 
ments  were  cut  away. 


THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.     49 

That  evening  there  went  a  summons 
through  the  little  village  that  opened  the 
door  of  every  house.  A  young  man  galloped 
out  from  the  city,  waking  the  echoes  of  the 
hills  with  his  somewhat  untutored  bugle- 
notes,  as  he  dashed  along.  Riding  from 
house  to  house  of  those  who  had  pledged 
themselves,  he  told  the  news.  There  had 
been  a  great  defeat ;  reinforcements  had  been 
summoned  instantly ;  and  the  half-organized 
regiment,  undrilled,  unarmed,  not  even  uni 
formed,  was  ordered  to  proceed  that  night  to 
the  front,  and  replace  in  the  forts  round 
Washington  other  levies  that  were  a  shade 
less  raw.  Every  man  desiring  to  enlist  must 
come  instantly ;  yet,  as  before  daybreak  the 
regiment  would  pass  by  special  train  on  the 
railway  that  led  through  the  village,  those  in 
that  vicinity  might  join  it  at  the  station,  and 


SO      THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

have  still  a  few  hours  at  home.  They  were 
hurried  hours  for  Ayrault,  and  toward  mid 
night  he  threw  himself  on  his  bed  for  a 
moment's  repose,  having  left  strict  orders  for 
his  awakening.  He  gave  not  one  thought  to 
his  world  of  visions ;  had  he  done  so,  it 
would  have  only  been  to  rejoice  that  he  had 
eluded  them  forever. 

Let  a  man  at  any  moment  attempt  his 
best,  and  his  life  will  still  be  at  least  half 
made  up  of  the  accumulated  results  of  past 
action.  Never  had  Ayrault  seemed  so  ab 
solutely  safe  from  the  gathered  crowd  of  his 
own  delusions  :  never  had  they  come  upon 
him  with  a  power  so  terrific.  Again  he  was 
in  those  stately  halls  which  his  imagination 
had  so  laboriously  built  up  :  again  the  mob 
of  unreal  beings  came  around  him,  each  more 
himself  than  he  was.  Ayrault  was  beset, 


THE   MONARCH  OF  DREAMS.  5  I 

encircled,  overwhelmed  ;  he  was  in  a  manner 
lost  in  the  crowd  of  himself.  If  any  confused 
thought  of  his  projected  army-life  entered 
his  dream,  it  utterly  subordinated  itself  ;  or 
merely  helped  to  emphasize  the  vastness  and 
strengthen  the  sway  of  that  phantom  army 
to  which  he  had  given  himself,  and  of  which 
he  was  already  the  pledged  recruit. 

In  the  midst  of  this  tumultuous  dreaming, 
came  confused  sounds  from  without.  There 
was  the  rolling  of  railway  wheels,  the  scream 
of  locomotive  engines,  the  beating  of  drums, 
the  cheers  of  men,  the  report  and  glare  of 
fireworks.  Mingled  with  all,  there  came  the 
repeated  sound  of  knocking  at  his  own  door, 
which  he  had  locked,  from  mere  force  of 
habit,  ere  he  lay  down.  The  sounds  seemed 
only  to  rouse  into  new  tumult  the  figures  of 
his  dream.  These  suddenly  began  to  in- 


52  THE  MONARCH  OF  DREAMS. 

crease  steadily  in  size,  even  as  they  had  be 
fore  diminished ;  and  the  waxing  was  more 
fearful  than  the  waning.  From  being  Gulli 
ver  among  the  Lilliputians,  Ayrault  was 
Gulliver  in  Brobdingnag.  Each  image  of 
himself,  before  diminutive,  became  colossal : 
they  blocked  his  path ;  he  actually  could  not 
find  himself,  could  not  tell  which  was  he  that 
should  arouse  himself,  in  their  vast  and  end 
less  self-multiplication.  He  became  vaguely 
conscious,  amidst  the  bewilderment,  that  the 
shouts  in  the  village  were  subsiding,  the 
illuminations  growing  dark ;  and  the  train 
with  its  young  soldiers  was  again  in  motion, 
throbbing  and  resounding  among  the  hills, 
and  bearing  the  lost  opportunity  of  his  life 
away  —  away  —  away. 


mm 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


LOAN  DEPT. 


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